Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire
Chapter 352 - 352: The Project

It was a year that passed in relative peace, which let the growing army of Researchers endlessly toiling in laboratories all over Hive Supremo and several other sub-hives that began to specialize in research to finish the greatest projects of the last year.

The road toward it was a long one.

The easiest part was learning how to distill ethanol, but this was something every middle-aged redneck could do in his garage. My girls were much smarter than this, so it was a piece of cake to ferment some cellulose-rich tree leaves and wood and refine the resulting brew into ethanol.

It was much harder to create a combustion engine—especially with our level of manufacturing, which was, admittedly, not the best. Even the coal-powered conveyor belts, presses, and other working machines were pretty crude. Most production still depended on hand work…

Which we never had enough of, thankfully. We had enough workforce to compensate for almost every other shortcoming!

And after the first combustion engine train successfully moved over the railroad, began the *real* work.

Electricity! Which took not just trial and error, but also a lot of rare minerals and metals. At least copper was relatively cheap, but it soon still became in larger demand than steel.

At least, until the first coal-powered electric station was built to power experimental manufactures and the production of the *real* project.

The project was so real that I called it just *The* Project.

Today, the first working prototype of it was about to be unveiled before me. I couldn't wait—the last time I saw this project was on blueprints!

For this, I and my bodyguards had to travel to a sub-hive which had at once a proud and humble name "One-Of-The-Best". There was no one else with us—this wasn't an official ceremony, just a very important inspection for the Chief Researcher Engine-Seek and her team.

I saw the result of their work long before I saw the sub-hive the thing was standing next to. It was too large to miss, although a slightly wet tarp hid it both from my eyes and from yesterday's rain.

Next to it was standing Tamsha in work clothing—compared to him, The Project didn't seem too big, since it only reached his waist-height. His hands were crossed over his chest—a good sign of his hidden impatience. A swarm of several hundred bees was buzzing near him and near The Project, only to stop at my appearance and gather on top of it. There was plenty of space for them all.

I landed near and was immediately surrounded by the key team of local Researchers and Craftsmen. Engine-Seek led them, looking at me with wide, bright eyes.

"Father, I'm glad to see you again so soon. I wouldn't waste your time—everything is ready. The human can lift the cover," she tapped her foot at the bottom, "at any moment. He just waits for an order."

I didn't need to look at Tamsha to read his thoughts. The man was waiting here for a while, apparently… and he also wanted to see my reaction to the work's results.

After all, for the last few months, he was taking an active part in its creation! For a thing that large, the bees needed someone to act like a crane and lift things.

But after The Project was complete, this wouldn't be necessary anymore.

I smiled.

"Sure, let's not waste time. I'm as impatient as you all are… And afterward, we can sit down and celebrate your success properly! I'm sure that the Artists of One-Of-The-Best are already preparing a feast for both me and your team."

Engine-See perked up. Although she looked as cold and unapproachable as most Researcher Bees, she clearly liked feasts as much as any other bees.

"This is an optimal order of actions, and I would've realized this myself if I spared any thoughts from our work." She turned to her cohort. "To positions, everybody! Father, please, follow me."

I gestured to my bodyguards, and we all flew with Engine-See to a nearby pillar mountain, where bees built a small platform at the height of The Project's top.

'You can do it,' I messaged Tamsha and grinned. 'I know you want to… Show what you spent so much time here for. I'm sure it was worth it.'

'It… really was incredible, and I don't understand even half of the things the bees here built,' Tamsha thought in response. 'Any scholar worth their name would've sold all his earthly possessions to be in my place. Ah… here it goes.'

He lifted the giant, human-made tarp in one smooth movement and unveiled the thing of gleaming metal and sharp edges.

It was a machine like no other! Even on Earth, nothing similar to it was ever built—I led our Researchers into a completely uncharted territory. But in this world…

First, I knew that gravity in this world worked differently from my old Earth—otherwise, there was no way human-sized bees could fly and humans didn't collapse under their own weight. The bees weren't tiny, and I wasn't light—those were really *humans* who were giant—but things just worked and it wasn't "just because".

Second, humans didn't *need* something like this.

But the Bee Empire had the need and the means! The laws of physics allowed us to build massive constructions with relatively fragile materials.

And this construction was… a mecha—a giant bee-like robot made to perform tasks that bees were just small to do!

Originally I wanted the Researchers to make a human-sized mecha, but it required much more materials and was too hard, especially for a first prototype of something. This mecha, with the model codenamed as "Princess", was still large enough to do its work.

Although I saw the blueprints of this thing… The reality was still more shocking than I expected. Much more shocking!

I examined the mecha all over with wide eyes.

'This part… and this part… But did they actually make the 'Princess'… *pretty*?! This makes no sense, this is just a prototype!'